Toyota Motor, still struggling to resolve a problem with accelerator pedals, said Tuesday it would temporarily stop selling and building eight models in the American market, including the popular Camry and Corolla sedans. Ed hardy clothes
The unusual move has the potential to further damage Toyota, whose reputation for quality has been battered by two recalls of millions of vehicles in the last two months for a problem that the company has described as a “rare” condition in which the gas pedal can stick, and cause a vehicle to speed up unintentionally. Ed hardy hoodies
“This action is necessary until a remedy is finalized,” Robert S. Carter, a Toyota group vice president, said in a statement. “We’re making every effort to address this situation for our customers as quickly as possible.” Cheap ed hardy hoodies
Toyota said it would immediately stop selling the Camry, Corolla and Avalon sedans, Matrix wagon, RAV4 crossover, Tundra pickup, and Highlander and Sequoia sport utility vehicles. Ed hardy t-shirts
It will also stop building those models the week of Feb. 1. All of the vehicles are assembled in the United States or Canada, at a total of five plants. Cheap ed hardy t shirts
The models affected accounted for more than a million sales in 2009, 57 percent of Toyota’s American total for the year. Ed hardy shirts
The company said the move was intended to restore confidence in the automaker, and the safety of its products. One analyst said many consumers may have a different reaction. Ed hardy clothing
“The problem seems to be getting larger than anyone was led to believe at first,” said Erich Merkle, an analyst with Autoconomy.com in Grand Rapids, Mich. “A lot of those vehicles are probably in the garages of families. It gets people thinking, “Would I want my wife and kids in the vehicle, would they know what to do in a situation like that.’ ” Cheap ed hardy clothing
The recession has led to a sharp drop in sales over all for the auto industry. For Toyota dealers, the news will likely further dampen their business. Cheap ed hardy boots
“It’s not exciting to hear that a good portion of my inventory now can’t be sold,” said Paul Lunsford, general manager of South Coast Toyota in Costa Mesa, Calif. Ed hardy jeans
But Mr. Lunsford, who has been a Toyota dealer for 30 years, applauded the company’s decision to move fast to suspend sales of the vehicles involved in last week’s recall. “Nobody had to put a gun to Toyota’s head to get them to do the right thing,” he said.
Still, Mr. Lunsford added, “it’s not the feel-good story of the year if you’re a Toyota dealer.”
A November recall by Toyota was intended to fix a design flaw that could cause the gas pedal to become trapped under the floor mat. It was prompted in part by the crash of a Lexus sedan that ran out of control and crashed into a ravine near San Diego, killing four people.
But the automaker and federal safety officials continued to receive reports of unintended acceleration and stuck pedals even in cases where the floor mats had been removed, a stopgap measure recommended by Toyota.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been looking into two recent incidents in Texas and New Jersey. Four people died on Dec. 26 near Dallas when a Toyota Avalon — with its floor mats in the trunk — went off a road and landed upside down in a pond.
In announcing a second recall last week, Toyota said the accelerator pedal could wear down and become difficult to depress, slow to spring back or get stuck partly depressed.
Toyota does not have a solution for the problem yet, and it said drivers who experienced it should depress the brake firmly and steadily, and then contact a dealer after the vehicle was in a safe location and turned off.
Drivers who have not had a problem should wait for the company to develop a remedy before visiting their dealer.
Together, the two recalls cover 4.8 million vehicles, including 1.7 million affected by both. The Prius hybrid and several Lexus models were included in November recall but not in last week’s action or the sales halt.
The latest series of recalls threaten to undo all the efforts Toyota made in the middle of the last decade, when it was hit by a series of quality problems that caused recalls to spike. But a number of those recalls were for vehicles at least a decade old.
The most recent recalls follow what Toyota insisted was a companywide effort to improve quality that was started by Katsuaki Watanabe, who served as its president before he was replaced last year by Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company’s founder.
The decision to stop production, though unusual, is not unprecedented. Detroit carmakers have in the past delayed or slowed production on vehicles like the Chevrolet Cavalier and Ford Thunderbird in order to address quality issues.
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